BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS!

[PZelda]

Let's try this...

This thread is for books that you have ALREADY read and completed. Tell us the title AND the author, what it is about, and why we should check this book out.

A few years ago, there was another thread like this, and Karly (Kay Scarpetta) recommended A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith. This was around 2003... I tried to check out a copy of that book from my library, but never really started reading it. Then, either last year or this past spring, I finally brought a copy of that book from Barnes & Noble. Again... my copy lay untoched for months (more than a year?). In June, I started my reading rampage - this is to say, I got back into reading again, after being on a super-long hiatus. :D I decided to get around to A Tree Grows in Brooklyn at the beginning of August, and LOVED it! It truly is a fabulous book.

Basically, the book is set in early 20th-century Brooklyn, NY, and the main character's name is Francie. The book spans something like 12 years (1907 to 1919, I think). It's really just a book about her life - but Betty Smith's writing style really grabs you. Francie has dreams of becoming a writer, her dad is a huge drinker, her mom works really hard at being a good mother and raising her as well as her younger brother. There is so much that is covered in this book, I don't want to discuss it and spoil the surprises... It's a really great book. Betty Smith originally penned this book in 1945, and it was a groundbreaking novel at the time of its publication.


Okay, that's my book recommendation (and a huge thanks to Karly!). How about YOURS?

(Oh, by the way, Sharop, I picked up a copy of I Know This Much is True, by Wally Lamb, last week at the used bookstore. Yes, I picked it up because of that thread you started. lol I can't wait to start reading it. :))

[Courtnee]

Let's try this...

This thread is for books that you have ALREADY read and completed. Tell us the title AND the author, what it is about, and why we should check this book out.

A few years ago, there was another thread like this, and Karly (Kay Scarpetta) recommended A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith. This was around 2003... I tried to check out a copy of that book from my library, but never really started reading it. Then, either last year or this past spring, I finally brought a copy of that book from Barnes & Noble. Again... my copy lay untoched for months (more than a year?). In June, I started my reading rampage - this is to say, I got back into reading again, after being on a super-long hiatus. :D I decided to get around to A Tree Grows in Brooklyn at the beginning of August, and LOVED it! It truly is a fabulous book.

Basically, the book is set in early 20th-century Brooklyn, NY, and the main character's name is Francie. The book spans something like 12 years (1907 to 1919, I think). It's really just a book about her life - but Betty Smith's writing style really grabs you. Francie has dreams of becoming a writer, her dad is a huge drinker, her mom works really hard at being a good mother and raising her as well as her younger brother. There is so much that is covered in this book, I don't want to discuss it and spoil the surprises... It's a really great book. Betty Smith originally penned this book in 1945, and it was a groundbreaking novel at the time of its publication.
Hm...I'm going to check that out tommorow. I need to read more.

[Number 9 Dream]

Awesome idea for a thread!

Well, my very favorite book is 'I Am The Cheese' by Robert Cormier (published in 1977). I first read this when I was in junior high school and fell in love with it. I can't give too much away (it's one of those books that totally shocks you at the end), but here's a little excerpt that sums up a little of what it's about :)

Imagine discovering that your whole life has been a fiction, your identity altered, and a new family history created. Suddenly nothing is as it once seemed; you can trust no one, maybe not even yourself. It is exactly this revelation that turns 14-year-old Adam Farmer's life upside down. As he tries to ascertain who he really is, Adam encounters a past, present, and future too horrible to contemplate. Suspense builds as the fragments of the story are assembled--a missing father, government corruption, espionage--until the shocking conclusion shatters the fragile mosaic. Young adult readers will easily relate to the shy and confused Adam, whose desperate searching for self resembles a disturbingly exaggerated version of the identity crisis common to the teenage years.

taken from Amazon.com.


It's an awesome book :tehcool:

[tdf4077]

I think everybody should read To Kill a Mockingbird....it's great! So well-written and classic and important!

I also really think that if you're into theory or whatnot, Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead is really good...I used to read it at least once a year!

[Number 9 Dream]

Ahhh, To Kill a Mockingbird was one of my favorites in high school! Actually, Catcher in the Rye was my all-time favorite (still is!) I recommend that book to everyone!

I am hearing a lot of good stuff about this book called The Timetraveller's Wife (forgot the author, sorry!)...can anyone tell me more?


I think everybody should read To Kill a Mockingbird....it's great! So well-written and classic and important!

I also really think that if you're into theory or whatnot, Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead is really good...I used to read it at least once a year!

[gilligan fanatic]

I think everybody should read To Kill a Mockingbird....it's great! So well-written and classic and important!

I also really think that if you're into theory or whatnot, Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead is really good...I used to read it at least once a year!

I read that in school two years ago. I couldn't get in to it. I didn't hate it or anything, but I don't think I like being taught a lesson that straight foward. I think I get more out of it when it's a hidden message.

[Kristen]

Add me to the To Kill a Mockingbird fanclub. That is like the BEST book! If I had my way, it would be required reading in every school. I'm a bookworm, so I def. have book recommendations. A few that come to mind:

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving: I read this book in like 8th grade for summer reading, and fell in love w/ it. It's all about this boy, Owen Meany, who believes that he's God's instrument and he's meant to do something great. Basically the book is about how everything happens for a reason. (I know Sharop will agree with me about how great this book is, hehe!)

Along the same lines, I'd also recommend The Five People You Meet in Heaven, by Mitch Albom. It's about a man named Eddie who dies in an accident at an amusment park, believing that his life has been pretty much a waste. But the five people he meets in heaven show him that no life is a waste and that we're all here for a reason.

Pretty much any book by Jodi Picoult is good, too. You might've seen the Lifetime movies The Pact and Plain Truth, which were based on her novels. Those books are good, and so are Vanishing Acts, Perfect Match, and My Sister's Keeper. I'd especially recommend them to anybody who really likes Lifetime movies, b/c they're kind of similar in themes and such. I've prob. rambled enough for one post already, so I won't give summaries of those books here, unless somebody would like me to.

Edit: I can't believe I left out my other fave book The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I read it in HS, and then did my final paper on it in college. It's about a man (Gatsby) who becomes rich to impress the woman he loves. OK, that was a really bad summary, but the book is good! LOL

- Kristen
PS - Great thread, Allison! :)

[PZelda]

Ahhh, To Kill a Mockingbird was one of my favorites in high school! Actually, Catcher in the Rye was my all-time favorite (still is!) I recommend that book to everyone!

I am hearing a lot of good stuff about this book called The Timetraveller's Wife (forgot the author, sorry!)...can anyone tell me more?
I actually *JUST* picked up that book at the used bookstore the other day, I think it was on Friday. The author is Audrey Niffenegger (I know, nice last name huh? lol). I'm going to start reading it pretty soon... Will let you know what I think of it! :)

[Brad Russ]

Every Michael J. Fox fan should read his 2003 autobiography "Lucky Man". You find out things about him that you never knew before, and for me, I gained even more respect for him after reading it.

[Central Perk]

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse.

[Shine]

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

[Leigh Ann]

I recommend Homer Hickam's books: October Sky, The Coalwood Way, and Sky of Stone. They're really great.

I also love the Princess Diaries series by Meg Cabot, and of course To Kill a Mockingbird is excellent. Also the Harry Potter books are great, but I guess everybody knows about them.

Edit: Oh and Having Our Say by the Delany sisters is another good one, and Christy by Catherine Marshall is good too.

[Sharop]

(Oh, by the way, Sharop, I picked up a copy of I Know This Much is True, by Wally Lamb, last week at the used bookstore. Yes, I picked it up because of that thread you started. lol I can't wait to start reading it. :))

I hope you enjoy it. :)

I totally agree about To Kill a Mockingbird, A Prayer for Owen Meany, The Catcher in the Rye and I am the Cheese. The other books that have been mentioned all look really good too.

Some recommendations of my own:

A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle: A teenage girl, Meg Murry, and her youngest brother, 5-year-old Charles Wallace (who talks like a 50-year-old professor and has an IQ of about 10,000) along with their newly-made friend Calvin, go in search of Meg's missing father, along with three angels that they meet, named Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who and Mrs Which. Their father is being held on a planet called Camazotz, which is ruled by an evil thing called IT.

Fire and Hemlock - Diana Wynne Jones: As she is preparing to start her second year at university, 19-year-old Polly suddenly realises that she has two sets of memories, one set of which features her becoming great friends with a man called Thomas Lynn when she was 10 years old, and remaining in contact with him until she was about 15. Polly goes through these memories and cannot understand why there seems to be no trace left of Thomas Lynn.

In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash - Jean Shepherd - a collection of short stories by the radio humourist. The movie A Christmas Story (which Shepherd narrates) was based on some stories in this book.

[Jonathan]

Christy by Catherine Marshall is good so far. :)

[Courtnee]

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
I'm getting that when I'm done with "A tree grows in brooklyn" :D

[PZelda]

Hey, Kristel, I'm more than halfway done with The Time Traveler's Wife. HOLY MOTHER OF GOD, it is an EXCELLENT book. It falls under the romance fiction category, but it is very tastefully done. It doesn't have any of that trashy "His manhood was throbbing, and she wanted so very badly to taste his lips" context in the book. It's just... Wow.

I don't know what else to tell you about it, except to check out a copy. The time traveler in the book is, obviously, a guy (Henry) who randomly goes time-traveling. It's not something Henry can control. Henry can FEEL himself start to disappear, but he can't will himself to stop time-traveling. Henry has known the other main character (Clare) since she was 20, and him, 28. But Clare has known Henry since she was 6 and he was 40. It's really confusing at first, but you pick up on it quickly. :D

Courtnee, how is A Tree Grows in Brooklyn going?

[Shine]

I'm getting that when I'm done with "A tree grows in brooklyn" :D

It is a great book. A great movie too! :)

[Courtnee]

Courtnee, how is A Tree Grows in Brooklyn going?
Swimmingly. :D

[Courtnee]

I just finished A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Great book. Glad I read it. :D

[Number 9 Dream]

I'm sorry I didn't catch this sooner, Allison! I'm glad you liked the book--I actually asked my brother to pick it up for me for Christmas ;) I'm sure I'll love it...it sounds awesome!

I'm currently reading 'Running with Scissors' by Augusten Burroughs...it seems very good so far--quite crazy and hilarious :lol: I'll be sure to update in this thread once I finish!


Hey, Kristel, I'm more than halfway done with The Time Traveler's Wife. HOLY MOTHER OF GOD, it is an EXCELLENT book. It falls under the romance fiction category, but it is very tastefully done. It doesn't have any of that trashy "His manhood was throbbing, and she wanted so very badly to taste his lips" context in the book. It's just... Wow.

I don't know what else to tell you about it, except to check out a copy. The time traveler in the book is, obviously, a guy (Henry) who randomly goes time-traveling. It's not something Henry can control. Henry can FEEL himself start to disappear, but he can't will himself to stop time-traveling. Henry has known the other main character (Clare) since she was 20, and him, 28. But Clare has known Henry since she was 6 and he was 40. It's really confusing at first, but you pick up on it quickly. :D

Courtnee, how is A Tree Grows in Brooklyn going?

[vienna waits]

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

[Brad Russ]

The Bible is the best book I've ever read. I'm not preaching either, I really loved it. So much so, that I read it all the way through 3 times, and probably will many more times before my life is over. It's got so much interesting content that It kind of spoiled most other books for me.

[AB]

"Odd thomas" by Dean Koontz is a really good book. Odd sees and talks to dead people. It is a pretty cool book. :)

[GoldenGirlsFan92]

My Point Is And... I Do Have One-(1996)
The Funny Thing...Is(2003)
The are both by Ellen DeGeneres, and are very funny.

[Courtnee]

Anthem by Ayn Rand
Night [I forget who wrote it, but it's a great book about the holocaust.]

With Anthem, it's short, but deep and a bit confusing. I had to read it a couple times before I got it.

[mrs.gingerhinkley]

I recommend Homer Hickam's books: October Sky, The Coalwood Way, and Sky of Stone. They're really great.


currently, i am reading October Sky. It is very good and very inspiring; i also recommend it!

Also:

Gone With the Wind- a timeless classic by Margaret Mitchell, a bit lengthy, but well worth the read, tells the tale of the fallen South

And Then There Were None- my favorite novel by Agatha Christie, if you like mysteries... u will luv this very unique story!

i have many more... of course...;)